New Year's Eve/New Year's Day

On New Year's Eve, Lucy and Lynlee were both sick and went to bed at about 6pm (party poopers).  So around 8 or so, we celebrated early with the rest of the kids.  Michelle made a countdown video which we watched, followed by poppers, noisemakers, and a little dance party in the living room.  Then we went outside and played with sparklers and watched people's big fireworks that they were already setting off.  We ate lots of good food that night too and had a ton of snacks and appetizers out for everyone to eat.  This was about the day when everyone started to really get sick though, so many of us went to bed at about 10:30ish, myself included.  Ryan, Michelle, Rachael, and Jon (I think?) stayed up and at midnight they had a "silent party" where they ran around the living room and whispered their cheers and drank martinelli. :)

New Year's Day was our last full day there, so Ryan and I spent a little bit of time packing everything back up and getting ready to drive home.  Later on in the day, we went back over to the University of Florida campus and walked around Lake Alice.  This is a lake on campus that has a bunch of alligators in it.  It was really pretty when we were there- it was at sunset and the lake was as smooth as glass.  After walking around the lake, we crossed the street to the bat houses they have there.  Right at dusk every night, the bats all leave the houses at the same time, so you will see one, then two, and then hundreds all swarming out at once for the night.  It was cool to see.

And that was the end of our trip.  We got up at 4:30am the next morning and were on the road by 5am. It was a long ride back, especially since Lucy was really sick.  We took her to the doctor the say after we got home and found out she had a sinus infection, and was cutting about 5 teeth all at the same time (all 4 molars, plus another one!... yikes!).  But now we're back and trying to clean up and get back into our daily grind.  We already miss being around family so much though!